Colby Lazcano discusses the environmental implications of the chaotic UK weather 2nd Year Undergraduate – BSc Chemistry with Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Discovery Images by NOAA On October the 9th, Hurricane Milton reached Florida after travelling from the Gulf of Mexico, of which as a result it was found on the 14th of October that at least 24 people had died . Hurricane Helene , two weeks earlier, had caused the deaths of over 230 people across the states it travelled through. The two main theories of hurricane formation both require convergence of winds to occur, and a deflection of these winds via the Coriolis Effect . The Heat Engine theory states that warm surface temperatures in the ocean (of which need to reach down under the ocean) as well as high wind speeds cause heat to be moved up into the air. At the cooler air temperatures above, clouds form from the water vapour. As the temperature is higher closer to the surrounding “eye”, a high pressure causes the winds to move outwards from the centre, and the heat is lost to space. The other Convection theory states that colder temperatures in the air get warmer through condensation via warm ocean surface temperatures, which raises the pressure at the top of the forming hurricane. This causes the air to move outwards, and an area of low pressure forms at the ocean surface. The air then spins counter-clockwise and causes the water below to create friction of which causes the winds to converge more. The released heat causes a positive feedback which causes the hurricane to get stronger. Climate change has increased the surface temperatures of the oceans, meaning that hurricanes are likely to be stronger in the future via increasing wind speeds. Hurricanes do not last that long […]